Westminster Christian (18-7, 9-3) bounced back from the disheartening seventh inning when Holmer drew a leadoff walk from Ryan Dzingel (0-1), who had moved from shortstop to the mound in the seventh inning in relief of starter John Lace.

Holmer promptly stole second and went all the way to third on the same play due to a passed ball. Wheaton Academy walked the next two hitters intentionally, which brought up Westminster cleanup hitter Brandon Siewert. The senior, who was already 2-for-3 with a 2-run home run, a double and 4 RBI, fell behind 0-2 before the wild pitch ended the game.

"It feels good that we won, but we never should have let them come back to get into a situation where we had to win in extras," said Siewert, who pitched 12/3 innings of relief to earn the win and improve to 7-2. "We get too comfortable late in games against teams when we have leads. We have to work on being more aggressive late and having a little more energy."

Trailing 8-3 in its last at-bat, Wheaton Academy (15-6-1, 10-3) scored 5 runs on 6 hits.

"It was just great," Wheaton Academy senior Sterling Witt said of the improbable rally. "I thought the chances were very slim and I didn't expect it, but everyone pulled together and kept stringing hits together."

Witt ignited the scoring spree with a 2-run triple, Lace followed with a run-scoring single and Trevor Swaney pulled Wheaton Academy within 8-7 with a single to center field.

With runners at first and third and one out, Wheaton Academy coach Willie Bosque signaled No. 8 hitter Sam Scholes to lay down the squeeze bunt.

"Nerves," Scholes said of the feeling he got when he saw the bunt sign.

The bunt was fielded by new reliever Siewert, but his flip home was too late to get a hustling Dave McCarthy, who slid across the plate to tie the game. However, Siewert induced a groundball and a popup to strand the potential winning run at third base, and he stranded two more Wheaton Academy runners in the eighth.

Witt went 5-for-5 and tied the school record with his fourth home run of the season in the second inning, a solo shot to right.

The 5-run rally against freshman reliever Ryan Perez, who entered with the lowest ERA on the team, negated a solid 6-inning performance by freshman starting pitcher Kevin Elder. He allowed 3 runs on 7 hits and struck out seven.

"This doesn't seem like a win," Westminster coach Jeff Moeller said. "You could label this game as the story of our season: we've been ahead in almost every game we played this year except against Harrisburg, but we don't make the plays defensively."